A pen is a writing instrument which applies ink to some surface. Pens may be categorized by the kind of tip on them. The main modern types are:

• ballpoint pens
• fountain pens,
• rollerball pen
• marker pens and
• Technical pens
• Space Pen
• Mechanical pens

Ballpoints, fountain pens and gel pens are sometimes erasable: their ink may be erased.

Terms and expressions

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The earliest true pens were carved from split reeds and are known from ca. 3000 BC. The English word is derived from penna, which is Latin for "feather". This is because early pens were made from goose feathers by carving the feather with a knife. Around the 6th century BC and for more than a thousand years thereafter, the quill reigned as the standard writing instrument for people of many civilizations. Swans, turkeys, and geese's large wing feather made the best quill pens. Archaeologists discovered bronze pen points embedded in the ruins of Pompeii but not until the late 1700s were stell-point pens used. A century later, fountain pens were developed - the name chosen because the ink of these pens flowed continuously, like water in a fountain. L.E. Waterman, a New York stationer, devised the practical ink reservoir system. Lazlo Biro relied on improved methods for grinding ball bearings for machines and weapons and produced the first ball-point pens suitable for writing on paper around 1944. The Pentel, introduced by Tokyo's Stationery Company, was the world's first felt-tip pen, c 1960.

Pen is also used as a verbal expression of "to create" or "to write"; for example, "Today, I think I'll pen the Great Canadian Novel."

The ballpoint pen

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There are two basic types of the ballpoint pen: disposable and refillable.

A power load that was very similar or the same as the ballpoint pen was developed by the Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro. Biro developed a new tip consisting of a ball that was free to turn in a socket. The word used for ballpoint pens in Argentina is birome because Laszlo Biro lived there for many years; also, biro can be used to refer to a ballpoint pen in British English. It was originally invented for the British RAF, as problems occurred with fountain pens due to the low air pressure aboard planes in flight.

Pens in culture

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During the 1960s the space pen was developed, which could work in the absence of gravity and air pressure, and in extreme temperatures, to create a pen that would write upside down. Prior to its discovery by NASA, American space missions relied on lead pencils, but they tended to break, creating dangerous floating debris that could get in an astronaut's eye or create a short circuit, and they were prone to burning in a high-oxygen atmosphere. However, a special "space pen" is not necessary to write in space; the average ball point pen will work just as well in micro-gravity as mentioned by astronaut Pedro Duque.

Erasable pens were a fad in the 1980s that lingered until the early 1990s. These ballpoint pens - available in blue, black, and red - had a special type of ink that could be erased with an eraser located on the pen's cap or opposite the nib, similar to a pencil. These pens faded out of style due to the faint quality of their ink, inconsistent "erasability", and the lack of a definitive functionality - they did not offer the permanence, bold ink and smoothness of a regular pen, and could not manipulate the size and pressure of lines like ordinary pencils.

After a failed break in the music career, Hollywood actor Johnny Depp became a pen salesman. American Idol singing competition finalist Jon Peter Lewis was mocked by judge Simon Cowell as looking like a pen salesman, a moniker that stuck on him throughout the competition.

Pentop computer

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A new type of pen called the "Fly pentop computer" was created in 2005. The user of the pen can write certain symbols on a piece of digital paper to perform tasks. For example, the user can draw a calculator on the paper and use it as if it was a real calculator.

See also

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• Pencil
• Dip pen
• Writing and drawing
• Quill
• Pen spinning
• Brush

External links

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• Urban Legends: the "Space Pen"

Writing instruments | Stationery

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